Phi Sigma Epsilon Fraternity at Ball State an Honors Thesis (ID 499)
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A Perspective of Delta Phi Sigma - Phi Sigma Epsilon Fraternity at Ball State An Honors Thesis (ID 499) By Mark E. Rowland Thesis Director Dr. Kenneth Collier Ball State University Muncie, Indiana August 1978 r,t;{C!: c-! hf<:.i~ r--1"; 2~B~~) FOPEWORD AND DEDICATION I decided to try and write a history of my fraternity after I felt a need to Hnow more about the roots of Delta Phi Sigma and Ball State. I found myself fascinated with the literature of the times, watching Ball State and the fraternities growing together. There is a great deal of historical information in the paper, but I felt it important to include historical data as a method of defining the mood, and the people, of any particular time. The history of Delta Phi Sigma-Phi Sigma Epsilon is intricately woven into the history of Ball State and all the other fraternities on campus. I had to write about all in order to write about one. This paper is by no means the authoritative work on fraternity life at Ball State, but it does give an outline for other researchers to follow. It doesn't name every president or every member of the fraternity, but if an alumnus would read this, I'm sure it would cause him to remember. I hope he would remember the good things -- the friend- ship and the brotherhood. ¥y thanks to the many people who submitted to interviews and donated materials for this work. I also drew heavily on material from "The Ball :State Story" by Glenn White, copies of The Easterner, ~ State News, and Daily ~, and Orient. Dean Collier, my advisor, kindly made university files available to me, as did others across campus. I wish to dedicate this work to all the people who helped me assemble it; but more importantly, this is for the people who have lived it. Most especially to Leonard Moore, the founder of Delta Phi Sigma-Phi Sigma Epsilon at Ball State. I must echo the words of his fraternity brother Carl Noble -- Delta Phi Sigma-Phi Sigma Epsilon. Thank God. iii DELTA PHI. SIGMA LEONARD MOORE MARCEL THOMAS HAROLD SMITH --_..•..•. _•...... TABLE OF CONTENTS Historical Background 1 Beginnings 4 Depression 10 World War II and Phi Sigma Epsilon 12 The 50's and Fraternity Expansion 17 Draft Age and Into the 70's 22 Appendices 25 Appendix A 27 Appendix B 29 Appendix C 31 Appendix D 33 Appendix E 35 Appendix F 37 Appendix G 39 Appendix H 41 Appendix I 45 Appendix J 45 Appendix K 48 Appendix L 52 ix -- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The r.istory of social clubs at Ball State begins even before Y:unciE3 was granted status as the Eastern branch of Indiana State Normal School on April 4, 1918. A fraternity, in fact, is held responsible for the fa.ll of Indiana Normal School and College of Applied Science in the surr~er of 1907. A cow roaming through Phi Sigma Theta fraternity house caused then president Francis M. Ingler to order fraternities to disband. ¥.any students quit the college, and Ingler later resigned. The school closed. The third attempt to start a college at Muncie had failed. Muncie Normal School was the fifth - and the successful - attempt to establish a college in Muncie. Officially a branch of Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, it was in fact independent almost from the beginning., Al though the president of the Terre Haute branch was the technical head for the first six years, when the schools shared a president, Benjamin F. Moore was Dean and the practical head of the school. The school opened for the summer term of 1918 and drew a total of 380 students, a good number considering the final push of WW I was underway. Enrollment dropped considerably for the fall term and the faculty was forced to recruit boys for the Student Army Training Corps. They recruited 124 men, bringing the fall enrollment up to 225. The SATC was the first center of social activity on campus. The men residHd in Forest Hall and marched on campus, but according to reports, did littlE! studying. After the November Armistice, the nationwide flu epidemic hit Muncie, paralyzing the town and forcing classes to be 2 suspended.. The SATC (Saturday Afternoon Tea Club, as the recruits called it) dwindled rapidly after that. The l~ginning of social clubs at Eastern Normal started with the organization of the college YMCA-YWCA in January of 1919. Prohibition had been enacted during the war and there was rumbling on campus from the "Red scare." The Y's were perfect outlets for social activities in the cramped social atmosphere of 1919. During the next year the first men's "social club", Navajo, was organized on campus. The old injunction by President Ingler of 1907 was rememl~red, and the group was careful to use "social c1ub" rather than nfraternity" in their name. Also in 1919, the Girls Club started with Viletta Baker as sponsor. All girls were eligible to be a member, and local sororities started as sections of club, beginning with Alpha in 1920. Until 1921, there were only two buildings on campus, the Administra tion Building and Forest Hall, a dormitory. A science building, suggested by PresidEmt Parsons at Terre Haute, was approved by the Indiana General Assembly. Ultimately $253,000 was spent and the Science Building opened on McKinley in the fall of 1923. By the summer of 1924, the building was in full operation, housing the De~artment of Business Administration as well as English, Mathematics and Science. Whilf3 the Science Hall was being constructed, Frank C. Ball 'Wrote a letter indicating he and his brothers 'Would donate $250,000 for the construction of a building on campus. Then-president Hines asked a local architect to look into the possibility of a gym, and the building 'Was complf~ted in 1925. The Indiana legislature showed its apnreciation ". 3 by adding Ball Teachers College to the formal name of the school. In 1929 it officially became Ball State Teachers College. The Elarly 20's were the IIJazz Age", a time when our country was feeling its oats after a costly war. The Ku Klux Klan was a powerful force in Huncie and Indiana political circles, and a general relaxation of moral :~ed to a dramatic change in the average student. Bootlegging illegal liquor, cigarette smoking and short hair were signs of the time, and they reached onto campus, as noted in editorials in The Easterner. Benjamin Burris had become president of the college in the winter of 1924, succeeding Linnaeus Hines. Although he died just over two years later at the age of 45, Burris ignited a building program that would raise three new buildings by 1930. The cornerstone for the Library and Assembly Hall was laid in June of 1926, the first program held on February 11, 1927. Lucina Hall, another gift from the Ball brothers, opened in September of 1927. Burris School, a dream of Benjamin Burris, was finished in 1929, two years after his death. President Pittinger replaced Burris, and proved to be a far sighted administrator. Ball State Teachers College was a growing and prospering school. It was during this time of furious activity on campus -- climbing enrollment, building construction and a changing national morality - that many social clubs were born. Delta Phi Sigma was one of those clubs. - BEGINNINGS Leona.rd Moore came to Ball State in the spring of 1926, after spending one semester at Butler University. While he was on the Indianapolis campus, Moore had been a member of a local fraternity called Delta Fbi Sigma. He never went active in this organization, and may have had a reputation as a troublesome pledge. He recalled at least one time when he received five swats for using the front door of the fraternity house, rather than the back door as pledges were required to do. Moore stated his reasoning was since he paid as much as anyone else to live there, he should be able to use whatever door he wished to use. The idea of fraternity membership was still attractive to Moore, but he was apparently unimpressed with the two fraternities then on campus -- Navajo and Triangle. Moore~ and several friends decided they would put together their own fraternity. Since Moore had been in a fraternity at Butler he was declared the organizational expert and earmarked as the first president. The other officers were Ralph Carr, vice president, Marcel Thomas, secretary, and Elson Satterfield, treasurer. When it came to choosing a na.'Ile, Delta Fbi Sigma -- the same name as the Butler fraternity -- was chosen. Moore later traveled to Indianapolis and contacted C. B. Dyer, an Indianapolis jeweler. Dyer had made pins for the Butler Delta Fbi Sigma, and he agreed to let the Ball State chapter use the same pins and crest. This was a tremendous savings for the cr..apter, since they didn I t have to pay to have new pin molds made. - In tr..e process of organizing, Moore went to Grace DeHority, dean 5 - of women at Ball State, and asked for help in writing the constitution and by-la\Ts. DeHority was pleased to help and her version of the constitut~~on and by-laws was later approved with few changes. With all in readiness for their first year on c~~pus, Moore and the other founding seven -- Carr, Thomas, Satterfield, Ferce Hoffner, Evert Shbrely, Harold Smith, and Claude Williams chose P. D. Edwards as their advisor. Accounts differ on the number of founders in the organizat:.on -- the early Orients say ten, Moore admits to nine, and says one I~rson was kicked out for not coming to meetings.